Ideas for Moana cocktails and recipes inspired by the movie:
Is it childish to have a birthday party with a Disney theme? I hope not, because even as an adult in my 30s, I’ve been doing this! Themed parties are a ton of fun. You can pick out and make some great decorations, food items, games, and more.
But in contrast to a child’s birthday party, adults get to add something else fun: cocktails! When I hosted my Moana birthday party earlier this year, I was excited to plan and create some Moana cocktails.
And while the drinks themselves are fun, an important part is also the presentation! I used a variety of different glasses and unique serving styles with these cocktails.
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Moana Cocktails Menu
I was aiming for a good variety of flavors and alcohol types (and I wanted to include one mocktail). I was pretty happy with the menu I came up with! We had 4 cocktails and 1 mocktail, plus some beer, wine, juice, and water.
The first one is basically a traditional Mai Tai. I wanted to have at least one coconut focused drink, but it when it comes to tropical cocktails there are so many options! I ended up creating my own sort of coconut rum punch and called it the Kakamora Kooler. The Motunui Sunrise is very similar to a Tequila Sunrise, but it also adds some mango juice. The Wayfinder’s Wave is basically the same as the Seven Seas Lagoon, a drink that used to be offered at The Wave at the Contemporary Resort. Finally, I picked a layered mocktail to look a little like the colors in Moana’s outfit.
Recipes for Moana Cocktails
Maui Mai Tai
- 1.5 oz mango rum
- 1 oz dark rum
- 1 oz lime juice
- .5 oz triple sec
- .5 oz orgeat syrup
- mint leaves
Directions: Put the mango rum, dark rum, lime juice, triple sec, and orgeat syrup into a shaker with ice and shake well. Pour into tiki glass filled with ice. Garnish with mint leaves.
Presentation: I had some fun tiki glasses from a past party, so used them for the Mai Tai. Some of the other drinks look cool from the outside, like the Motunui Sunrise. I wanted to save the clear glasses for drinks like that. The Mai Tai is delicious but not quite as striking in appearance, so it made sense to use these colored glasses! I also added mini umbrellas for a little more fun.
Presentation: this one should be served in coconut shells, of course! I got plastic ones, and then used three of them to paint on the faces of the Kakamora. I didn’t actually serve a drink in the painted ones, but they were great on the table for decoration!
Motunui Sunrise
- 2 oz tequila blanco
- 2 oz orange juice
- 2 oz mango juice
- ¼ oz grenadine
- orange slices
- cherry
Directions: First, mix the orange and peach juice together. Fill a glass with ice and then add the tequila first, followed by the orange-peach juice mixture. Top with the grenadine. Garnish with an orange slice and cherry.
Presentation: I wanted to use a clear glass for this one so you could see the pretty layered colors. I kept it simple and garnished with an orange slice and a cherry (though the cherry floated to the bottom).
Wayfinder’s Wave
- boba pearls
- 3 oz pineapple juice
- 1 oz vodka
- 1 oz coconut rum
- .25 oz agave syrup
- .5 oz blue curacao
- squeeze of lime juice
- 6 oz soda water
- Swedish fish, peach rings
Directions: Add boba pearls to bottom of glass, then fill glass with ice. Add pineapple juice, vodka, coconut rum, agave, blue curacao, and lime juice. Top with soda water. Garnish with candy and glow cube set to blue.
Presentation: The original drink is meant to serve (at least) two people and is in quite a large bowl, but I wanted to have the option for more personalized sized drinks. I found these mini fishbowl cups and they were perfect! I added a glow cube to each one (I have a pretty good collection from Disney trips!).
The Moana
- 4 oz lemonade
- 4 oz hibiscus iced tea
Directions: Fill a glass with ice. Pour in lemonade. Slowly pour the steeped hibiscus tea over the ice cubes to make the layered lemonade.
Presentation: This one is really tricky to get the layering right (I never got a decent photo because the few times it happened, we were already in party mode and not so much picture taking mode!). It’s delicious either way, but if you want the visual try a few experiments first.
Other party drinks
I made sure to also have some non-cocktail options, of course! We had some wine and beer for those who prefer that to cocktails. I asked a friend to pick up some beer for the party, and he asked what to get. I told him to find something tropical that might be one theme.
And I don’t think you could have picked a better option than beers from Maui Brewing Company! I mean, it has a character’s name right in the title 😉 The Pineapple Mana wheat ale was really good, too.
With that many drinks, it’s important to stay hydrated with water! I made sure we had plenty of bottled water on hand that was easily accessible to everyone. And I had to make these themed, too, with a fun label!
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Which of these Moana cocktails would you most like to try?

Please bring me a Motunui Sunrise thaaaaaank yooooou